Is internal communication a discipline of its own, or is it a subset of public relations? Get a group of communicators together and this discussion gets out of hand quickly.

Point #1: Among practitioners, the term "public relations" has become synonymous with "external communication." Proof? Check the job postings on either the PRSA or IABC Web sites. Jobs with the title of "public relations" invariably identify media relations or other external communication as the job responsibility. Actually, job titles tend to be much more specific, showing that other disciplines besides media relations and internal communication are vying for separateness, such as marketing communication, Web writer and brand communication.

Point #2: The professors turning out practitioners teach that internal communication is a subset of public relations, because that's what the textbooks say. Did you take a college-level course focused exclusively on internal communication? Truth is, the principles of PR apply to internal communication. But, so do principles of management and leadership.

Point #3: Plenty of communicators shy away from the term "public relations." Over the years, it has acquired too much negative baggage surrounding unscrupulous promotion. Yet, "internal communication" still has its own detrimental connotation, referring to something a junior staffer handles. "Corporate communications" is a term to overcome both, but if you did a person-on-the-street survey, how many do you think could define "corporate communications"?

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